Students Discuss Shakespeare During Videoconference

Dan Sherman QuestarIII, April 30 2003

Students from Questar III's New Visions: Visual & Performing Arts program
participated in a videoconference on Wednesday with leading actors from the
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in England. The theater group is
internationally known as one of the most respected interpreters of
Shakespeare's works.

During this special presentation, RSC actors discussed and demonstrated
approaches to interpreting and acting Shakespearean roles and speaking
Shakespeare's language with students in Peg Danner's class. Conversations
also included the challenges of understanding the playwright's themes,
characters and language. The videoconferencing performance and demonstration
was offered in cooperation with Questar III's Instructional
Videoconferencing Service, the Prince William Network and the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The videoconferencing was particularly timely for the New Visions: Visual &
Performing Arts students, whose murder mystery dinner theater production
opens tonight at Rensselaer Educational Center. The play, written and
performed by the New Visions students, includes a three-course dinner
prepared by students in Teresa Mill's culinary arts program. For more
information or to purchase tickets for today and tomorrow's shows, please
call Peg Danner at 271-7705.

The New Visions: Visual & Performing Arts program offers local high school
seniors in Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties the opportunity to
explore the careers available in the arts. Located at the Arts Center in
Troy, the program offers an integrated curriculum in Advanced Placement
English, music, art, theatre and film studies. Students also take classes at
Hudson Valley Community College and Russell Sage College.